Welcome!

If you're looking for offbeat fiction, fantasy, scifi, essay, or even rare bits of poetry, you've come to the right place. Enjoy!

Shadow and Shade

"I stayed up all night finishing Shadow and Shade, a fascinating fantasy world of magic, family, and what happens when the two collide. A tough and enchanting tale that will have you listening to the forest and talking to the wolves. I can't wait to see what Gerrard writes next!" Rebecca Cantrell, New York Times bestselling author of The World Beneath

Is it right to kill a dream?

Is it ever right to kill dreams? My answer is ‘never.’ That’s the typical answer, but I gave this one some thought and I’m sticking to it. The argument went something like this. What if I’m a parent, my child has a dream of being a dancer or a writer, and they have no talent whatsoever? Worse, what if I know an adult who has a dream and no talent, ability, or chance to do something? Is it worth bursting their bubble, to save them sadness, frustration and embarrassment from failure?

No, no, hell no, and who cares.

I don’t care how unreasonable, ridiculous, or unreachable a dream may appear to be. Another word for “dream,” is “hope.” We live for what we dream. As a sickly, shy, nerdy kid, I dreamed of being athletic, confident, and a writer. Life isn’t a movie, and none of these things came to be with the exclamation points on the ends of them like I hoped they would (ATHLETE! DUDE! WRITER!), but pushing for them and trying to get them in every way changed my life.

Even the failures. I remember standing up against a fence about a mile into a three-mile run, with calves as hard as rocks that wouldn’t loosen up, unable to breathe, crying, because my will and my head had just learned that it takes more than passion to climb a mountain. Over the next half hour, the same day, I realized that it takes patience, planning, perspective, and taking it easy on myself, and that sometimes you have to adjust your goals as you go.

There were similar moments as I sent out story after story without getting published, and received either rejection notices, or nothing at all. The lesson here was even better: I love to write, and I’ll keep writing because I do.

You get the idea. I would… not… change… one… damned… thing.

Not

one.

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation.” Pearl S. Buck